Gaming

LucasArts announces a new internally developed videogame franchise, Star Wars 1313™. The game will make its formal debut at the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles June 5-7. As players take control of a lethal bounty hunter in a never-before-seen dark and mature world, Star Wars 1313 introduces an integrated development approach by bringing together great artists across the Lucasfilm organization, including LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm Animation Ltd. and Skywalker Sound. A third person cinematic action adventure game, Star Wars 1313 will bring to life the Coruscant underworld, the most dangerous place in the Star Wars™ galaxy.

If you have an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 connected to the internet, you can download a playable demo of an early stage of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II right now. It's about 700 megs, so while big it should provide a nice sampling of what's to come very soon. Assuming you buy the game, of course.

If you like to try before you buy, you'll get to try out the clone (or is he?) of Starkiller next week. PSN and Xbox Live's marketplace will both host the demo on October 12, 2010. Obviously, check your dashboards for exact availability. The game itself has a number of iterations including Amazon-exclusive DLC. As such, be sure to shop around before you buy!

Hayden Blackman, best known as the creative force behind The Force Unleashed franchise, is leaving Lucasarts so says MTV's gaming blog. Apparently the sequel is well on its way to being done in time for September, and nobody seems to be worried about everything hitting its mark. You may wish to read more.